Florida Transsexual Man Granted Custody

Published 7:00 pm, Thursday, February 20, 2003

A judge granted child custody to a transsexual man involved in a bitter divorce case and ruled Friday that the man is legally male under Florida law, even though he was born female.

Circuit Judge Gerard O'Brien said the ruling, the first of its kind in the state, meant Michael Kantaras could legally adopt his wife's teenage son and be listed as the father of a child she conceived during their marriage.

Legal experts have said the ruling could provide a legal definition of gender in the state and give non-biological or stepparents a legal foundation to seek visitation or custody.

"This is an amazing decision, because the judge has overlooked the fact that he's a transsexual and looked at the best interests of the children," said Lynne Gold-Bikin, former chairwoman of the American Bar Association's family law section. "This is a major victory for alternate lifestyles."

Lawyers for Kantaras' former wife, Linda, had argued that Kantaras was not legally a man when they married in 1989 so the marriage was invalid.

O'Brien, however, said in his ruling that under Florida law, "there is no statutory requirement that the (marriage license) applicants shall prove their gender." He said the law "clearly provides that marriage shall take place between one man and one woman. It does not provide when such status of being a man or woman shall be determined."

O'Brien reached his decision more than a year after the three-week custody trial.

In his ruling, he noted that a court-appointed custody evaluator had determined that Michael Kantaras, 43, was the better parent and that Linda Kantaras, 34, had tried to turn the children against him. The judge awarded her "liberal visitation rights."

"I'm so relieved," Michael Kantaras said after the ruling. "Now my kids and I can get on with our lives in peace."

Michael Kantaras was born Margo Kantaras in 1959. He had a sex change operation in Texas in 1986 and legally changed his name.

When he and Linda Kantaras married in 1989, she knew he had been a woman. Her son, from a previous relationship, was adopted by Michael Kantaras as an infant, and their daughter was conceived with a sperm donation. The children are now 13 and 11.

The couple's marriage dissolved in 1998 when Michael Kantaras became involved with another woman.

Linda Kantaras' attorneys did not immediately return a phone call for comment Friday.

O'Brien's ruling was hailed by national gay and lesbian advocacy groups as a groundbreaking decision in favor of transsexuals, particularly in a state that had banned same-sex marriages and barred homosexuals from adopting children.

"To our knowledge, this is the first transgender marriage case in the U.S. in which extensive medical evidence was presented, giving the court a full and fair opportunity to really understand the contemporary medical consensus about transsexual people," said Karen Doering, one of Michael Kantaras' lawyers and a staff attorney for the National Center for Lesbian Rights.